Understanding Understandings: A Visit to Backward Design

Like any other morning I woke up and made coffee. I was going to enjoy it while I read my assignment for Module 4. A few minutes later, when I poured myself a hot steamy cup of Starbucks and sat down in front of my computer with the textbook written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, I felt myself relaxing. As I opened my textbook, I was checking my email on line. Having been thoroughly distracted by my email, I heard a swooshing sound and felt myself suddenly being pulled into my computer! I was startled, shocked and terrified. Before I could respond, I was hurling through what appeared to be a Black Hole, into cyberspace or what seemed to be space at a horrendous speed. Suddenly I stopped abruptly and landed on my backside in a backward position. As I looked around me, I could not figure out where I was. Everything appeared to be transparent with low grade color. As I stared at my surroundings, people began walking past me. It was at that moment I realized they looked like holograms! When I tried to speak with them (picking myself off the ground and brushing off that part of me that was still smarting a little) they ignored me. I could not read the signs on the billboards or understand what anyone was saying, as they strolled by me (without noticing me, I might add). As I watched, I thought…how odd these people seem to be walking backward.

Then into my line of vision came a person carrying books and walking quickly while looking at a watch around her neck. She certainly looked like a professor, even if she was transparent. I began following her. She walked toward a building that looked like it was part of a college, even though it was, also, transparent like the rest of this world. I continued to silently walk behind her (in my best ninja catlike form). As she walked into what appeared to be a classroom, with great trepidation, I said out loud , “Are you able to understand me?” She cocked her head in my direction, just a little bit, and said, “You are a bit forward, are you not?” I looked at her and asked, “You think I am forward?” She just looked back at me with a slight smile on her lips. I wondered why she seemed amused and continued, “I am lost and don’t know how to get back.” “Where are you going?” she inquired. “I want to go back,” I stated exasperated. I quickly added, “…where I came from.” She justed stared at me. Concentrating on me, she asked, “Where did you come from.” “I don’t know,” I replied. “Well,” she said thoughtfully, and then added “…I can’t help you.”

So there I was. I found myself somewhere in a cyberspace virtual world, not understanding the language, not know where I came from or how I got where I was. I was impaled on the horns of a real dilemma. I was thirsty; hungry (for potato salad, I might add) and feeling very alone. I asked her, “Where am I?” She answered thoughtfully; “you are in Backward Design. “ “May I ask your name? “ I asked. She smiled and said, “of course; I am Rosseforp Nej. “ “Oh!” I replied. Then as though I had been hit by a ton of bricks, I suddenly understood why I couldn’t understand…everything here was Backward. “I have to ask the right questions to get where I am going,” I stated. She smiled and said, “Exactly, you must ask the essential questions.” Thinking about what she had just said I asked, “If I get to the Big Idea by asking the right questions, will I be able to understand understanding?” She was moving about the room adjusting something I did not quite understand, she looked at me and said bluntly, “of course.”

Suddenly I had that aha moment! I said, “I must live forward; but to get where I want to go I have to move backward, correct?” “Yes,” she said looking directly at me. Okay, I got it! I looked at her again and realized she was manipulating hologram objects on a huge computer. She was actually touching and moving hologram objects! “So,” I said thoughtfully, “…to get back where I started from, I must move backward or I cannot go forward.” She was smiling, as I threw a quick glance her way. Pondering this I thought, if one is lost in a cyber-world because you have spent too much time there, one must ask the right questions; get the big idea or overall open ended concept and go backward to move forward. By solving this problem, I can pass her assessment test and finish my morning coffee before it gets cold, I said quietly to myself. “Thank you very much Rd Nej, “I told her, while silently saying Dr. Jen under my breath.

Taking a very big breath of air and calling forth my courage, I stepped back with one long stride; and suddenly I felt myself swirling through the vortex. I felt a chill of anticipation as I hit the bottom of my chair in my office, with a load thud!. There was my coffee, sitting on my desk waiting for me!